Friday, December 30, 2016

Don't be a "resolutionist"! Let's plan our 2017 running

I am not a "resolutionist"!

You know what a "resolutionist" looks like: It's the person who shows up for a few weeks in January for the group run or at spin class or in the pool, resolved to finally make working out a habit, to be pursued throughout the year. Around the first of February, you look around and they are gone, never to be seen again - until perhaps the following January.

People who make New Year's resolutions often don't follow through on them because the resolutions are wishes, not goals based on a vision of the future, with a well-constructed plan to achieve them.

I don't make New Year's resolutions, but I do set vision-based goals and develop strategies with specific actions to achieve them.

THE TIME OF YEAR FOR PLANNING

This is the time of year I plan my running, swimming and biking for the year ahead. Out of this planning comes a set of races I am targeting and a detailed daily training schedule (sometimes laid out for a half year at a time) to put me in the best position to succeed in my target races, as well as to yield the fitness, well-being and overall enjoyment I get from running and multi-sport.

This time around, I have decided to share some of my methods with my runner and triathlete friends. I asked myself, what's the best way to start in building a solid plan for 2017? What do I typically do? Based on what I know as long-time masters athlete and coach, what are the keys to success that we should consider when setting our 2017 goals and putting together our plan to achieve them?

TAKE THE SURVEY TO KICK-START YOUR PLAN

The result is my 2017 Running Survey: Set your goals! It's an interactive questionnaire that helps you plan for 2017 based on your 2016 activity, your current situation and practices, and your running and racing aspirations for 2017. (I thought about putting together a similar questionnaire for triathletes, but the complexity of the sport and triathlon training makes that a much bigger task than creating the questionnaire for runners. Sometime in the future I will take this on!)

By completing the questionnaire, you will address and assess:

Your mileage goals.

Number of days you plan to run.

Number of planned races.

Planned races by distance.

Your target training and racing paces by distance.

The elements of heart rate training.

Planning and tracking training and results.

The elements to include in your training schedule.

Ways to increase your running speed.

How to avoid injury and promote faster running.

Planning and executing your target A and B races.

Your big racing and training goals for 2017.

When you finish the survey, you will receive an email with your responses to the questions. Your answers will show your running training and racing goals for 2017. These answers, as well as the specific dates for your planned races to the extent you know them, are the elements you or a coach will need to construct and adjust your detailed 2017 training schedule.

Try it out! After you complete the 2017 Running Survey and get the summary email showing your goals, let me know how helpful you find this tool. Your feedback will help me continue to improve it so it becomes even more helpful in planning for running success.

HUMAN INTERVENTION NEEDED

While I would like to think that completing the 2017 Running Survey is all that's needed to get on with a great running year, setting your goals is the beginning of the process, not the end.

As a strategy consultant and researcher, I know in spades that goal setting is the easy part of planning and success. Acting on the goals with a feasible plan is essential.

When you know what you want to achieve in 2017 and have clues on ways to reach your goals, the next step is to construct your day-by-day, week-by-week, month-by-month training and racing plan, periodized and targeted to your A and B races.

You may know how to build a winning schedule, as I do. I have learned to build training and racing plans from my coaches, deep immersion in the literature and research on training and racing, and years of experience writing schedules for me and for other athletes. Good for you if you have gained similar knowledge and have the needed skills!

Yet, over the 25 years in my career as a masters athlete when I was intent on great improvement in my race results and fitness, when I was targeting Boston Marathon qualifying times, a Kona Ironman ticket and a 20-minute 5K time in my 50s, I knew enough NOT to write my own training schedule.

Why not? Because beyond the skills to write a winning schedule, a coach has objectivity that we never can have about ourselves. A coach is a sounding board who brings realism and experience to help us get to our goals in a way that promotes health and enjoyment. A coach makes us more accountable for our training. A coach not only can work with us to build our schedule but can hep us adjust it as the year proceeds based on our results and situation.

ENLIST HELP!

Need a winning 2017 running plan and assurance you will pursue it? Don't be a resolutionist! Complete the 2017 Running Survey and then share the results with me or another qualified coach who will work with you to put the detailed plan in place and help you execute it for greater running success and enjoyment.